Monday, June 23, 2008

Fingerless Mitts - Stulpen

I completed these little mitts while I was on vacation and boy am I glad they are finished. For a while there, I thought these were doomed to the frog pond. It seems that I don't know how to pick up a dropped stitch while knitting cables. And for some reason I kept dropping stitches about halfway through the cable pattern on the first mitt. I tried picking the stitch up - but the twists and turns just didn't look right. So I ended up ripping it back to the cuff.

I also tried to lengthen the cable section a couple times and that didn't work. I couldn't figure out which rows to repeat and make the cables look right. I must have ripped the first mitt out about 7-8 times. I had to frog the second one too, but that was because I put the thumb gusset on the wrong side. So much for an easy travel project.

The pattern was nice and well written. The cable pattern was easy to do and the chart was easy to follow. I liked that the pattern contained a nice large printable version of the chart.

I only made some minor changes to the pattern. I started the cables just a little sooner than suggested. I thought the pattern would be too low at about wrist level and might hidden by sleeves. I also knit the top part of the mitt a little longer than suggested too. It just seemed to fit my hands better that way.

I'd definitely knit these again, but I think I'd use a plainer yarn so the cable pattern isn't as obscured and I'd try to figure out how to alter the chart correctly.

I was able to get an afghan square out the leftovers from one skein. But when I originally bought this yarn I bought two skeins to knit a pair of socks. So now a single skein is floating around the stash.

You were pretty involved in a lot of other things going on while you were trying to figure out the changes on these. They turned out really nice in the end! Cross another one off the list. (also another square)!!